Posted on 09/06/2007 5:51:55 AM PDT by SJackson
While the world’s attention has been focused on the Israeli security barrier sealing off the West Bank, India has been building a far longer fence to keep out Islamic militants, thwart cross-border smuggling and stop human trafficking.
More than 1,300 miles of the barrier has been erected in the six years since building began. Snaking through jungles, rivers and the villages of five states, Delhi’s floodlit, 12ft double fence packed with razor wire will render India a fortress against her neighbour.
The problem India faces is that 100,000 of its citizens live and farm on a 150-yard patch of land hugging the international border known officially as “the zero line”, and they live on the wrong side of the fence’s designated path.
Entire villages, including schools, temples and mosques lie in what will effectively become no man’s land. Although Bangladeshis and Indians along the border have lived cheek by jowl for decades, and share the Bengali language and culture, relations between them are strained by suspicion.
The Indian villagers fear that once the fence is built they will be harassed by Bangladesh’s security guards. They say that locked away from Indian guards their fields and homes could be looted with impunity by Bangladeshi farmers.
Rabreya Bachhri, who lives in Jayantipur, the same village as Mr Biswas, says: “Even now the Bangladeshis cross over at night from their side and steal our cooking utensils and cows. We’re very worried about our future. India has to look after us and keep us inside the fence or it will make us Bangladeshi.”
Sandwiched between two nations, the villagers say that they get a raw deal from both countries. The Indian and Bangladeshi security forces accuse them of colluding in smuggling and illegal immigration.
Officers from India’s Border Security Force say that Bangladeshis claim they are entering India for medical treatment but do not have the required travel documents. One senior officer said: “Even those who come with documents don’t go back. The number of people coming into India is less than the number returning.”
Officials say that the fence has already stemmed the flow of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants attempting to cross into India from about 65,000 annually a decade ago to just 10,000 this year.
Shivajee Singh, a border security force inspector-general, said: “When the fence was put up the numbers came down.”
But Delhi is increasingly concerned about infiltration by militants from a country with a large, poor Muslim population that was scooped from India by partition. It accuses Bangladesh of harbouring insurgent groups fighting for accession from India from its northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur.
There are also concerns about the rise of radical Islam after the spate of bombs and violence in Bangladesh. “Militancy is a new dimension,” Mr Singh said. “Earlier people came for employment. Now we’re getting reports that they’re coming for terrorist activities.”
India has consequently accelerated the barrier’s construction, hoping to complete it by spring next year. It will also increase the number of troops along its border with Bangladesh from 45,000 to 53,000. In a move to bring villagers such as Mr Biswas inside the barrier, India has asked Dhaka to permit it to build the fence within the zero line, an area that both countries promised to keep free from defence structures in an agreement made 30 years ago.
Delhi claims that its request has so far been refused. However, a senior official of the Bangladeshi Embassy in Delhi said that talks between the two nations were continuing. “We’re always open to discussion with friends and neighbours,” he said. “But the agreement can’t just be changed by wishful thinking.”
But we WERE allowed to cut down trees during WWII.
No kidding. This whole notion that "we can't build the border fence" is nonsense. There are literally tens of thousands of miles of fence lining our interstates in this country in all sorts of terrain. Not only can we build a fence in virtually any terrain, we already have......
It's also one of the five fundamental things that the Federal gubmint is charged to do in the Constitution.....protection from foreign invasion.
Hell, the Chinese proved it centuries ago!.............
Thanks for the ping Raster. You all need to read this!
Emphasis:
At present, the federal government doesn’t plan on fencing off half of the entire border. Rather, Congress approved and President Bush signed a bill last year authorizing the construction of 854 miles of fencing to strategically seal 700 miles of the border.
Actual cost estimates for the 700 miles of secure border vary widely, between $3 million per mile initially estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to the far larger potential of $70 million per mile to build and maintain, according to a December 2006 Congressional Research Service report.
The high estimate for the entire wall is partially based on the past cost of litigation during the construction of the San Diego fence, said a spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).
That should not be an issue now, spokesman Joe Kasper told Cybercast News Service, because those issues were settled in court while Congress has granted the Department of Homeland Security broad powers to construct a border-wall.
Since that Secure Fence Act was signed, fewer than 20 miles of fencing have been built.
That prompted Hunter to write a letter to the White House last month, in which the Republican presidential candidate called the “lack of progress unacceptable, especially when adequate funding is available to earnestly proceed with fence construction.”
When the arguments that a fence won't work are successfully rebutted ... the proponents of illegals fall back on the environmental hazards of building the fence. When all else fails, threaten a lawsuit and years of litigation.
Build the triple-layer fence and let's see the difference. If it doesn't stop illegal aliens from flowing across the border, tear it down. It's not as if the government has never wasted money before. Simple fact is that it will work and that is what a bunch of folks don't want to see happen.
Take a LOOK at what we have now. Thank you Lil Dog of the Mountain Minutemen at Patriot Point!
>>>...the proponents of illegals fall back on the environmental hazards of building the fence.
::GASPS!!::
What have you got against butterflies!!! You are heartless.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871061/posts
Border fence seen harming ocelots, butterflies
Worthless, bottom-feeding $%#@*&! lawyers. When they're not busy bankrupting industries, they're out there undermining our sovereignty and security.
Then we ought to start with our policy of open flights and open immigration to/from Arab terrorist countries.
Illiterate Indians from Chiapas coming to pick strawberries and potatoes and gut chickens aren't terrorists.
Of course the fence really isn't about terrorists at all is it? Lets be honest about our objectives then.
WOuld she go out in public wearing 'virtual' clothing?
If that would not secure her person, then why would it secure a border?
Methinks the 'emperor' is buck-assed naked.
There will be a perpetual response to crisis situation, and it would not take long for the coyotes to figure out how to saturate the system so some people would inevitably get through.
Build the real thing, for Pete's sake, the money is there.
We need to send him more lettuce.
“This ain’t rocket science.......unless the government gets involved............”
Agreed. They should hire farmers to do it. Heck most farmers build several miles per year for nothing and end up paying for the materials themselves. For $3M/mile they would build it to milspec and laugh the whole time.
Sadly, that's the truth.
Then lets build the darn thing!
While it may not be entirely about terrorists, I think it’s just as silly to say that it isn’t about terrorists at all.
AND while “Illiterate Indians from Chiapas coming to pick strawberries and potatoes and gut chickens aren’t terrorists.” The carriers of the Qurans found along desert routes and the thugs of M16 could hardly be said to be “Illiterate Indians from Chiapas coming to pick strawberries and potatoes and gut chickens” could they?
So what is your point? (And let’s be honest.)
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